


4 Times Iris Told Dawn No

by yellow_sunrise



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Missing in Action, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2019-05-02 05:47:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14537982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yellow_sunrise/pseuds/yellow_sunrise
Summary: And 1 time she really said yes





	4 Times Iris Told Dawn No

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, this basically my speculations given legs, no I'm not over the `revelation' of our "Mystery Girl".

“Mommy, can I get a superhero costume?” Dawn asked, pulling on her mom’s slacks to get her attention. Iris stopped typing and looked down at her daughter with a raised eyebrow.

 

“Now what would you need a superhero costume for?” she asked, resting her chin in her hand as she watched Dawn sigh.

 

“They look pretty. And daddy wass fast and  _ he _ gets one. I’m fast too!”

 

“And so that means you should have one?” Iris asked her ad Dawn nodded, scooting closer to rest her hands in Iris’s lap.

 

“Please, mommy?”

 

“Well baby girl I’m sorry to tell you, but superhero costumes are for being superheroes. And right now, you’re a little girl,” Iris said simply. Dawn pouted, crossing her arms.

 

“I want a superhero suit!” Dawn repeated, her voice raised and her tiny fists balled up.

 

Iris leaned down until she was looking Dawn in the eyes and spoke slowly, enunciating every word.

 

“Dawn? I said no. You are not getting a superhero suit. Don’t make me tell you no again,” Iris said calmly. She didn’t raise her voice, only left the implication of punishment of a repeat performance.

 

Dawn stared her mother down, and neither refused to break until Dawn finally looked away.

 

“Yes, mommy.” she said quietly. Iris cradled Dawn’s head with one of her hands kissed her daughter’s smooth, soft cheek.

 

“Okay, baby girl. Try asking again in twenty years,” she told her, sitting up as Dawn zipped away, eager to get back to her brother. Iris shook her head. “A superhero costume. Must be out of her mind,” Iris mumbled, turning back to her work.   
  


* * *

 

“Mom, can I have this?” Dawn asked politely, holding up a fairly pricey dress. The price wasn’t all that bad when Iris looked at it. The fabric of the dress was soft, but it didn’t look like it would just tear after a little pressure. The color, bright yellow, was cute and Iris might have worn it herself when she was younger. Only the dress was too revealing.

 

“Hm, I don’t think so. Find something a little longer, yeah?” Iris told her, trying to find another dress for Dawn to wear at the ceremony.

 

“What? Are you serious? This dress is so cute!” Dawn protested. Iris nodded.

 

“It is! It’s a beautiful dress,” she said. Dawn brightened up and Iris remembered to make her point before Dawn got excited. “For adults,” Iris continued. Dawn didn’t deflated, but rather, grew indignant.

 

“What? Plenty of kids my age where stuff like this!”

 

“That’s them. However, you’re  _ my _ child. Emphasis on  _ child _ . You are not wearing that dress Besides. It’s an award ceremony and this isn’t even formal enough. It’s a nice dress for brunch or a casual gathering. Come on, let’s keep looking,” Iris said. Dawn rolled her eyes, as she followed her mom deeper into the store.

 

“Ugh, I never get to wear anything cute,” Dawn grumbled to herself.

 

* * *

  
  


Dawn was sixteen when she asked to go on a weekend trip with friends. She was ever more rebellious, and quite frankly Iris saw this coming. Barry was away on League missions and Dawn knew that since Iris couldn’t very well send her to her dad to ask for what she wanted.

 

“Mom please? I promise that I will be back Sunday afternoon!” Dawn pleaded, hopping on her toes. Iris sighed and shook her head.

 

“I can’t let you go in good conscience Dawn. You and your friends skipped classes just last month.” Iris pointed out. Dawn rolled her eyes.

 

“I thought I already got my punishment for that,” Dawn protested.

 

“Me not letting you go on a weekend trip isn’t a punishment. I just know that i’m not sure I can trust you to not go somewhere you’re not supposed to, or that you’re not lying about who’s going,” Iris said.

 

“Mom, I promise we’re just going to Julie’s mom’s cabin. It’s not even far away. I could get back home like that,” Dawn said, snapping her fingers.

 

“Oh? Well that’s very nice for Julie’s family. But you’re not going. You lied to me and your dad last month and until I feel you’ve earned that trust back, you’re not going on weekend trips,” Iris said with finality.

 

“Are you serious? Until some nebulous day when you decide you can trust me I have to just wait?”

 

Iris paused. “Yes.”

 

“That’s outrageous,” Dawn screeched. Iris turned to her daughter with a furrowed brow.

 

“Who the hell are you yelling at little girl? Do you want to actually get a punishment because if you want one I can think one up right now!” Iris said, pointing a finger at her daughter. Dawn went cross-eyes trying to follow it before she looked back at her mom.

 

“You always do this, you tell me that I need to make up for something but you don’t tell me how to make up for things so I’m always just being told I can’t live my life!” Dawn protested.

 

“What are you talking about? You think I should forget everything wrong you do for the sake of your social life?”

 

“No, just...just stop treating me like I can’t be trusted because I mess up once,” Dawn said, tearing up. Iris put her hand to her forehead, exhausted by the conversation already.

 

“I’m sorry baby, but no. You can’t go.” she said. 

 

Dawn took a deep breath, biting her lip as she turned away and left.

 

* * *

  
  


“Why didn’t you ever tell me?” Dawn asked quietly, as she buried her face in her mother’s shoulder.

 

“Tell you what?” Iris asked. Dawn sat up and stared at her mother.

 

“That I could go back and save him? That I could tell him,  _ warn him _ .” Dawn said, her voice breaking. Iris took a deep breath and let it out slowly, running a hand through her hair. She knew this was going to happen at some point. That Dawn would learn the true extent of her abilities and wouldn’t be content to spend another day without her father.

 

“Dawn,” Iris grabs a hold of her daughter’s hands, bringing them to her chest and biting her lip. “Your father wouldn’t want you to rupture time,” Iris said, recalling the many times following flashpoint that Barry swore never to go back into time unless it’s truly an emergency.

 

Dawn’s face crumpled and silent tears fell from her eyes.

 

“But I could help him. Who knows how many people we could help if I could tell him about Thawne?” Dawn pleaded, leaning forward into her mother’s face.

 

“And how many people could die instead? Dawn, if you try to stop a tragedy by going back in time, you could just be replacing deaths. Not saving people.”

 

“You wouldn’t want to replace dad with someone else?” Dawn asked. Iris flinched and sat closer to Dawn.

 

“Dawn, listen. You  _ cannot _ start taking life and death into your own hands. And your father wouldn’t be happy to be here with us if he knew we had to kill someone to bring him back,”

 

“I don’t care!” Dawn exploded, suddenly standing up. “I could go back and bring back dad! Don’t you want to see him too?” she sobbed. Iris looked up at her daughter with tear filled eyes.

 

“Of course I do, baby girl. I would love to see Barry again. And I want you to see him too. But we cannot be selfish.” Iris cried. Dawn rubbed at her eyes.

 

“We spend every day saving the city, from people who hate metahumans and debate whether I have a right to live! Maybe I’m tired of being selfless. Maybe I deserve to see him after everything. Can’t I do that? Just see him?”

 

Iris held out her hand and Dawn went to her mother without hesitation, curling into her lap. She was an adult now, no longer a small child who cried after a nightmare, but her mother’s arms were the safest place she knew, even now.

 

“You can’t Dawnie I’m so sorry, I wish I could be a better mom and bring your father back but I  _ can’t _ and I’m so sorry honey I am,” Iris sobbed, stroking Dawn’s face. She smiled shakily at Dawn, brushing hair out of her face. “I so  _ wish _ I could take your pain away from you and bring him back,” Iris pressed her face into Dawn’s neck.

 

Dawn suddenly felt guilty. Her mom was always the support for everyone around her and she was rarely afforded the opportunity to fall apart or show weakness. And now Dawn was making her own mother feel guilty for not being able to bring Dawn’s father, her own husband, back from the dead.

 

“I know mom, I know you would. I’m sorry, so sorry.”

 

“No I’m sorry,” Iris pulled back to look at Dawn. “You need your father, and you only have me. You deserve your father,” Iris sighed, wiping Dawn’s tears and her own away.

 

“You’re enough for me mom. You will  _ always _ be enough. I just want to meet him.” Dawn sighed.

 

“I know. He was a good man. The best there was. And he would have adored you more than anything in this world.” Iris assured her daughter in hushed tones. Dawn sniffled.

 

While Dawn thought about what she would never have, Iris told Dawn stories about Barry, from his happy youth all the way up until when he disappeared in a flash of incredible light, never to be seen again. That part was the hardest to retell but Iris does anyway.

 

Dawn eventually falls asleep and Iris lays her daughter out on the couch and covers her with a spare throw blanket they keep in the ottoman. She kneels down to kiss Dawn on the forehead and pauses. Because she knows Dawn is only waiting for an opportunity to sneak away.

 

“You’re going to go back anyway. I know you are baby girl. And I’m mad because so many things could go wrong. I might lose you too. So, if you go back Dawn, don’t let me see you. Because I’ll figure out where you are and I’ll break my promise not to go back and pull you back from the past myself. So when I go to bed early because it’s been a long day, Dawn you need to go then. Run, Dawn. Run!” Iris sniffles a little more, but she stands up and goes to her small office space in the apartment, pulling up the article she had been working on last night. As she falls into the rhythm of work, a single light brown eye opens and a flash of lightning is in that eye, planning.

 

Dawn Allen will save her father, at any cost.   
  



End file.
